Updating W. H. Hudson's Bibliography

Updating W. H. Hudson's Bibliography By Dennis Shrubsall Dunster, Somerset, England The author and naturalist William Henry Hudson (1841-1922) has been nobly served by his two bibliographers. The first, G. F. Wilson, whose Bibliography of the Writings of W. H. Hudson was published by Bookman's Journal (London) in 1922, received assistance from Hudson himself through their mutual friend Miss Linda Gardiner acting as go-between as his unpublished letters to her of 13 and [24] November 1921 show. The resulting bibliography, though worthy, is a slight volume compared with John R. Payne's splendid W. H. Hudson: A Bibliography (Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1977) which has been of inestimable assistance to this Hudson biographer. However, in his preface Payne realistically declares that though he has endeavoured to achieve completeness "no one is more aware than [he] that there are omissions." I have recently completed a five years' in-depth study of Hudson's considerable oeuvre, an element of which was an exaustive (and exausting) word by word comparison of his contributions to journals, magazines and the Press with versions collected, or included, in his books. A necessary prelude was to gather all the contributions listed in Payne's Bibliography, and while searching the old journal runs for them not unexpectedly six hitherto unlisted ones came to light: 1. "Horses and Man." Field, 25 November 1882. Collected in The Naturalist in La Plata. 2. "A Son of the Marshes." A review of The Wild-Fowl and Sea-Fowl of Great Britain by A Son of the Marshes, Saturday Review, 11 January 1896: 48. 3. "The Kingfisher." Letter to the Editor, Satuday Review, 8 May 1897: 513. 4. "British Birds and Not British." A review of Sketch Book of British Birds by R. Bowdler Sharpe, coloured illustrations by A. F. and C. Lydon, Saturday Review, 21 January 1899: 80. 5. "A Cornish Hedge." Saturday Review, 29 December 1906. Collected in The Land's End as "Old Comish Hedges." 6. "Furze." Saturday Review, 27 July 1907. Collected in The Land's End as "The Furze in its Glory." 186 Shrubsall: Updating W. H. Hudson's Bibliography Moreover, careful perusal of Hudson's books disclosed nineteen contributions which, though collected, are not shown as such in the bibliography: 1. C33. "Spiders." Gentleman's Magazine, July 1884. Collected in The Naturalist in La Plata as "Facts and Thoughts about Spiders." 2. C36. "A Versatile Hawk." Gentleman's Magazine, January 1885. Collected in Birds of La Plata, Vol. II. 3. C45. "Far Away." Gentleman's Magazine, November 1886. Collected in Far Away and Long Ago, Ch. I. 4. C54. "The Naturalist on the Pampas." Nineteenth Century, February 1890. Collected in The Naturalist in La Plata as "The Desert Pampas." 5. C82. "Afoot in Quiet Places." Sunday Magazine, July 1897. Collected (less first two paragraphs) in Afoot in England as "Seeking a Shelter." 6. C83. "The Best Scenery I Know." (Saturday Review, 17 July 1897. Collected in Nature in Downland; in first edition (Longmans, 1900): 25, 29, 30, 31, 167, 168, 174 and 176. 7. C103. "Wild Musk." Argosy, June 1901. Collected in Hampshire Days, Ch. XIV. 8. C107. "The Last Hampshire Ravens." Animal Life and the World of Nature, July 1902. Collected in Adventures Among Birds as "The Clerk and the Last Ravens." 9. Cl 18. "The Comfort of Ruins." Speaker, 30 April 1904. Collected in Afoot in England as "Roman Calleva." 10. C134. "Winter at St. Ives." Speaker, 3 February 1906. Collected in The Land's End as "Wintering in West Cornwall." 11. C145. "Bird Life at The Land's End." Saturday Review, 9 March 1907. Collected in The Land's End as "Bird Life in Winter." 12. C158. "Some Clever Birds." Saturday Review, 28 May 1910. Collected in Adventures Among Birds as "Birds in Authority." 13. C169. "A Memory of the Ancient Time." English Review, June 1912. Collected in Far Away and Long Ago, Chs. II, III. 187 Shrubsall: Updating W. H. Hudson's Bibliography 14. C177. "In a Churchyard." New Statesman, 18 October 1913. Collected in A Traveller in Little Things as "In Chitteme Churchyard." 15. C178. "Moths." New Statesman, 8 November 1913. Collected in The Book of a Naturalist...